LONG BEACH – Over 20 years ago, when I moved to Long Beach, I started working on HIV behavioral interventions; studies to reduce risk among local injection drug users, sex workers, gay and bi men, and heterosexual STD clinic patients — groups with a greater chance of becoming HIV positive. When effective treatments came about, and folks who had been at death’s door regained their health, I worked on projects that helped people return to work.

The number of newly infected persons has remained fairly stable for the past couple of decades – despite all these prevention efforts. Subsequently, the federal government shifted the focus from a behavioral to a medical model.

“I cannot prevent anyone from getting angry, or mad, or frustrated. I can only hope that they’ll turn that anger and frustration and madness into something positive, so that two, three, four, five hundred will step forward, so the gay doctors will come out, the gay lawyers, the gay judges, gay bankers, gay architects…I hope that every professional gay will say ‘enough’, come forward and tell everybody, wear a sign, let the world know. Maybe that will help.”